Mobile phase flow programming in liquid chromatography using short narrow bore columns

Abstract

Application of mobile phase flow programming to effect fast liquid chromatographic analysis of multi-components sample in short narrowbore columns was investigated. It was found that the generally accepted limited power of flow programming can, nevertheless, be enhanced by the right configuration of operating parameters, such as column I.D. and length, particle size of packing material, mobile phase, detector eel volume, etc. Average reproducibility of flow programming in the separation of five aromatic compounds were 0.18% in retention time and 6.0% in peak area. Initial flow rate was restored within 1 minute, all of which are favourable for reliable and fast analysis in routine HPLC laboratory.